HOW MANY HOURS PER WEEK SHOULD STUDENTS IN YOUR COURSE BE STUDYING?

Spot Poll - We asked 20 professors:

ANSWERS RANGED FROM SIX TO 18 hours, with an average of 10.5. How did the faculty come up with these numbers? Some used traditional rules of thumb such as two or three hours of studying for every hour spent in class. Speech Professor William Brown said that besides reading time, his students should take one hour outside of class for every minute spent speaking to the class. Three professors refused to answer the question. One commented, "You can't gauge something like that quantitatively."

Are students studying as much as faculty expect them to? According to data compiled by Sociology Professor Robert Sokol in 1986 (and he suggests the figures would be even lower today), Dartmouth students hit the books an average of 3.3 hours per day, or 23 hours per week 8.5 hours less than faculty would like.